Thousands given wrong GCSE grades

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Thousands of teenagers were given the wrong grades in their GCSE exams in England last year, new figures show.

The QCA exams watchdog said nearly 65,000 GCSE exams were re-marked (up 26% on 2005) - resulting in 14,305 of them being regraded (up 22%).

With 6.5 million papers taken last year, the proportions are very small.

But the QCA is going to investigate how papers are written and marking schemes devised, in order to bolster people's confidence in the system.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority said there appeared to be three main reasons why exam result challenges had gone up.

<UL><LI>Schools now had dedicated exams officers who looked in detail at results <LI>There was more information about pupil performance <LI>Changes to the league tables meant small alterations in results could have an impact on schools' positions.</UL>

The watchdog also said that 4,757 pupils were sanctioned for "malpractice" in the 2006 exams - a rise of 210 on 2005.

Cheating will not be tolerated DfES spokesman The biggest problem was candidates bringing mobile phones and other devices into the exam hall, followed by plagiarism and collusion.

The QCA report showed 1,906 candidates were penalised for bringing in "unauthorised material" such as notes, dictionaries, calculators or phones.

"Within this category, two thirds of cases related to mobile phones or other electronic communication devices, or 1,276 candidates in total," the report said.

"One third of the candidates penalised for malpractice were penalised for plagiarism, failure to acknowledge sources, copying from other candidates or collusion."

'Corrections'

The figures still meant that the proportion of candidates penalised for malpractice at A-level and GCSE remained extremely low - at around 0.06%.

The report also revealed that a maths A-level paper was stolen and that copies of it were allegedly available for sale before the exam.

Exams board Edexcel interviewed around 70 members of staff and candidates across a number of exam centres.

This resulted in 30 candidates being penalised.

However, overall the exams watchdog found the main exam boards - awarding bodies, in the jargon - provided a satisfactory level of service to the centres they served.

"Although the overall level of performance was high, none of the awarding bodies met QCA's performance expectation for producing question papers without errors."

Three produced more than 3,000 different question papers for general qualifications.

'Swift action'

Some 36 question papers or 1.2% of the total contained errors requiring correction.

As a result in 2007, the QCA said it would look in detail at the process for writing question papers to identify good practice.

A DfES spokesman said the report showed the examination system was working well.

"Students, parents and teachers can have full confidence in the results at GCSE and A-level.

"Cheating will not be tolerated. The vast majority of young people work very hard to get their qualifications so it's clearly unfair for anyone to cheat.

"Fortunately, cases remain very rare, but the QCA will continue to work with the awarding bodies to ensure that tough and swift action is taken where necessary."